Voice hearers’ experiences of the Making Sense of Voices approach in an NHS setting

ABSTRACT

The ‘Making Sense of Voices’ (MsV), or ‘Maastricht’ approach has become established within large sections of the voice hearing community, as well as being adopted by some professional mental health workers. However, there has been limited research to assess this intervention. A recent case series using the MsV approach reported promising results across a number of standardised outcome measures. The current study reports on the voice hearers’ experience of having received the MsV intervention, through the use of “exit interviews” conducted as part of the case series. Individual participants’ experiences indicated a range of reactions to the intervention. Positive outcomes appeared to relate to a better understanding of voice hearing experiences and a greater sense of control over voices. Not all participants reported a positive experience of communicating with their voices. Outcomes are discussed within the context of potential common and distinct “ingredients” of the MsV approach, compared to other approaches to working with distressing voices.

KEYWORDS:

• Auditory Hallucinations
• Experience Focussed Counselling
• voice dialogue
• Making Sense of Voices
• Hearing voices

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the other contributors to this research, both voice hearers and non voice hearers. Specifically, Suzanne Engelen as one of our trainers in the MsV approach, Annie Beyer, Rachel Manser, Tim Walker, Ffion Jones, Megan Kerr and Kathy Greenwood. We would also like to thank the fifteen voice hearers who participated in the study, along with the staff of Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust who facilitated the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.